Fine Gael councillor Seamus Weir this week clashed with council officials over a potential road widening scheme at Ardagh National School to improve safety in the area. The Knockmore based councillor placed a notice of motion before the Ballina Electoral Area Committee saying, “I am calling on Mayo County Council to engage with the local community in Ardagh and myself regarding the removal of a dangerous fence opposite Ardagh National School. Funding is available through notice of motion and the replacement fence/wall requested by the landowner will be built by the local FÁS team on request of the board of managment of the school.”
Cllr Weir’s motion got general support from the rest of the elected members of the committee. Cllr Weir said that he felt frustrated by the council in his efforts to get the work done. He told the meeting that a landowner was willing to give over the land needed to do the work as long as the wall was built on their property four meters back from the road, to replace the fence.
However, district executive engineer for Mayo County Council, Threasa Durkin, told the meeting that various options were looked at over the past few months and that a fence would be the best option from a safety point of view not a wall in the area he was talking about. She also said that the council could not give public money under notice of motion for work that would take place on private lands.
Acting director of services for Mayo County Council, Paul Benson told the meeting, “I’m a bit confused about this motion, we have been engaging with everyone for the past 18 months. This went from a car park, to a road widening project. The view is that the road needs to be widened by two metres not four metres, we are prepared to do that, not four metres.”
Cllr Weir responded by saying that the land was been given for free and that they wanted a wall or this wouldn’t happen. Mr Benson responded: “Building a wall has nothing to do with safety, we have a solution for that and I’m available to meet any of the people about this.”
